The environmental crisis is somber evidence of an insidious fraud hidden in the vaunted productivity and wealth of modern, technology-based society. This wealth has been gained by rapid short-term exploitation of the environmental system, but it has blindly accumulated a debt to nature-a debt so large and so pervasive that in the next generation it may, if unpaid, wipe out most of the wealth it has gained us.

When you fully understand the situation, it is worse than you think.

If you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, you are looking the wrong way.

In general, any productive activity which introduces substances foreign to the natural environment runs a considerable risk of polluting it.

As the earth spins through space, a view from above the North Pole would encompass most of the wealth of the world - most of its food, productive machines, doctors, engineers and teachers. A view from the opposite pole would encompass most of the world's poor.

Everything is connected to everything else. Everything must go somewhere. Nature knows best. There is no such thing as a free lunch.

It is simply economically impossible to require controls that even approach zero emissions.